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House Proposal Would Allow Feds To Break Up Biggest Banks

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Shahien Nasiripour - Nov. 18 (News Report) - A key House Democrat released on Wednesday his much-awaited proposal to end "too big to fail": Let the federal government break them apart. Paul Kanjorski's amendment would give federal regulators the authority to force the country's biggest financial firms or those that pose the biggest risk to the financial system to sell assets or entire divisions.

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GOP Blocks Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rate Hikes

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim - Nov. 18 (News) - Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort Wednesday to immediately freeze increases in credit card interest rates, fees and finance charges. Shortly after Democrats passed credit card reform legislation in May, the card companies began jacking up rates in advance of its implementation. Major parts of the act won't take effect until February and August of 2010. Earlier this month, to combat the rate hikes, the House passed legislation to move the effective date up to December 1st. The Senate moves much more slowly

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Anti-Statism In America

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By John B. Judis - Nov. 11 (News Analysis) - Liberals and progressives have fared poorly in the face of this staunch anti-statist tradition, but there have still been periods when they have broken through and enacted major reforms--during Woodrow Wilson’s first term, Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, Lyndon Johnson’s first two years, and Richard Nixon’s first term. They succeeded for different reasons at different times, but several conditions recur.

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How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insiders Confession

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TechCrunch - By Dennis Yu - Nov. 02 (Special Report) - How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insiders Confession

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As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B in Employee Bonuses

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By William Black, JUAN GONZALEZ,AMY GOODMAN - Oct. 15 (News Report) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average has topped 10,000 for the first time in a year, as JPMorgan Chase reported massive profits in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year—a record high. But on Main Street, foreclosures are also at record levels, and the official unemployment rate is expected to top ten percent.

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Snowe Voting Yes On Senate Finance Health Care Reform Bill

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim, Jeff Muskus, Sam Stein - Oct. 13 (News Report) - Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she intends to vote for the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform package. She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor. "Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it," said Snowe. "Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time." Snowe's statement came several hours before a scheduled committee vote. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what my vote will be tomorrow," she said. It does keep her at the negotiating table and at the center of the debate; Snowe risked marginalizing herself if she voted no. Snowe is well aware of the math. Her vote, she said, comes with knowledge that Democrats don't need Republicans to pass the landmark legislation.

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Meet the Hazzards

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Nomi Prins, Christopher Hayes - Sep. 23 (Special Report) - As we mark the end of the first year of the financial bailout, the public seems to regard the government's actions with a toxic combination of rage and confusion. People are pissed off but too bewildered to know what to do with that anger. The confusion isn't an accident. The government hasn't exactly been forthcoming about how it's made buckets of money available to the banking sector. When it does disclose some information--such as in July's SIGTARP report from the Treasury or the Federal Reserve's weekly balance sheet--it's in the form of intimidating descriptions, accounting mumbo jumbo and technical reports that do little to illuminate just what the hell is going on. What's worse, banks and the establishment press have portrayed TARP as the sum of the banking industry's federal subsidies. An August 30 New York Times article, "As Banks Repay Bailout Money, U.S. Sees a Profit," gives the impression that taxpayers should be happy to have made $4 billion on the deal, as if our checks were in the mail. But when the government became Wall Street's bank, it wasn't just $700 billion of TARP money that flew north to Wall Street. TARP was but a small fraction (roughly 4 percent) of the full $17.5 trillion bailout and subsidization of the financial sector. [See image.] The details of this total bailout are complicated, but the basic mechanisms aren't beyond the average citizen's grasp. We're going to walk you through it.

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Bonus Battle

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - By Erin Coker - Sep. 19 (News Analysis) - The Fed stepped up today with the US version of a worldwide backlash on bonuses for bankers. Led by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, this is another example of the G20 nations' rising power. Sarkozy is dragging a reluctant US along on his crusade to curb banker's pay. It only works if the whole world does it - and that could never have happened in the past, even though majorities of Americans have steam coming out of their ears over the obscene bonuses.

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Judge Overturns Bank Of America-SEC Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Stephen Bernard - Sep. 14 (News Report) - A federal judge on Monday rejected a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp., saying the SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must now go to trial. Separately, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office is preparing to file charges within the next couple of weeks against several high-ranking executives at Bank of America, claiming they failed to disclose details about the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

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The Foreclosure Rescue Mirage

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Andy Kroll - Sep. 13 (Special Report) - The problem is that the Obama administration gave mortgage servicers little more than a heads-up before rolling out its program, leaving companies to play catch-up once HAMP was announced. A vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Mary Coffin, told the Senate banking committee in July that the percentage of loan workout inquiries from borrowers who are current increased from, on average, 5 to 10 percent a month to 40 percent since HAMP was implemented.

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Death Bonds: Wall Street Teams Up With Insurance Companies to Kill People, Reap Profits

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Sally Kohn - Sep. 08 (News Analysis) - Wall Street's latest scam is to bundle life insurance policies purchased from the sick and the elderly into securitized death bonds and funds. The earlier the group of policyholders die, the bigger the return.

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Life After the Death of the Public Option

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FiveThirtyEight - By Nate Silver - Aug. 16 (News Analysis) - From the President on downward, the White House now seems resigned to losing the fight over the "public option", a government-run insurance plan that would complete against private plans. It's time to re-assess the playing field in light of this development.Is the public option really dead?

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Feds Build Criminal Cases Against US Tax Evaders

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CNBC.com - By Lynnley Browning The New York Times - Aug. 14 (News Report) - Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases against 150 wealthy American clients of the Swiss banking giant UBS as part of a continuing investigation into tax evasion. In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle charges that it had helped American clients evade taxes on nearly $20 billion hidden in offshore accounts.

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US, Swiss Cement Deal On Secret UBS Bank Accounts

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jessica Gresko - Aug. 12 (News Report) - The Swiss and U.S. governments announced a deal Wednesday to settle American demands for the identities of suspected tax dodgers, despite Switzerland's vaunted bank secrecy. But they kept all details under wraps, including how many of the 52,000 names sought by the IRS from banking giant UBS AG will be revealed.

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The Cowboys of Kabul

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Daniel Schulman - Jul. 28 (Special Report) - Although their circumstances looked dire, the Spiers were about to become millionaires. By May, Barbara Spier had filed the paperwork to form a new corporation called US Protection and Investigations. Soon, thanks to the contracting sweepstakes that was the war in Afghanistan, she was signing an $8.4 million deal with the Louis Berger Group. The multinational construction and engineering company had landed a $214 million contract to rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure—roads, water and sanitation, power and dams—from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USPI's job was to provide security for contractors repairing a 300-mile road stretching from Kabul to Kandahar.

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National Finance Commission reconstituted

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

brecorder.com - Jul. 26 (News Report) - President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday reconstituted the National Finance Commission withdrawing the name of Hina Rabbani Khar, State Minister for Finance due to opposition by smaller provinces. With the exclusion of Hina's name, the total strength of the NFC has now reduced to 10. The last NFC was constituted in August 2008, with Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar in the chair and Hina Rabbani Khar, the then Prime Minister's Adviser on Economic Affairs as special member. According to the new notification issued by the President, Abdul Ghafoor Mirza has replaced Saeed Qureshi as private member from Punjab.

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U.S. Senate Report: Excessive Speculation in the Wheat Market

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

agweb.com - Jun. 24 (News Report) - A 247-page report, entitled, Excessive Speculation in the Wheat Market, was released last night by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Acting Ranking Minority Member.

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Report: Goldman Sachs on Pace to Pay Out Record Bonuses this Year

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Nomi Prins, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Jun. 22 (News Analysis) - The Guardian newspaper reports staff at Goldman Sachs can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms. We speak to Nomi Prins, a former managing director for Goldman Sachs in New York, about the possible record bonuses, President Obama’s proposed reforms of the financial regulatory system and the “The Big Bank Bailout Payback Bamboozle.”

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Tobacco good investment for health insurers | Business Breaking News

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Melbourne Herald Sun - Jun. 05 (News Report) - Major US, Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said

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Russia Prepared to Invest $10Bln in IMF Bonds

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

sptimes.ru - By Ira Iosebashvili - May. 28 (News Report) - Russia is prepared to invest up to $10 billion from its reserves into the International Monetary Fund’s first-ever bond issue, a move that some say could signal a bid to gain greater influence in IMF decisions.

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Why Goldman Sachs Is the Greediest and Most Dastardly of the Wall Street Pigs

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Jim Hightower - May. 25 (News Analysis) - Goldman has taken many more billions' worth of low-cost loans from Federal Reserve funds. How many more billions? The Fed and the bank say this is "proprietary" information, not for public disclosure, even though it is public money. So, while these golden ones are loudly repudiating the $10 billion public subsidy they took from us, they are coyly retaining at least 40 billion of our dollars to stay afloat -- a tidy sum that does not include any restrictions on pay levels. Coincidentally, Goldman has since announced that it is setting aside nearly $5 billion to be distributed at the end of the year as compensation for its executives, including payments for outlandish bonuses for those at the top.

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The Bad Guys of Subprime Lending Are Raking in Bailout Billions

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By John Dunbar, David Donald - May. 20 (Special Report) - The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or bankrolled by banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money -- including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges. These big institutions were not only unwitting victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending that has threatened the financial system.

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14th Bank Returns TARP Money

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Paul Keil - May. 19 (News Report) - On Friday, two more banks returned their TARP money: Alliance [1] of Syracuse, N.Y., ($26.9 million) and Texas Capital [2] of Dallas ($75 million). So far, 14 banks have returned a total of $1.3 billion, according to our running tally [3] of refunds. As we’ve noted before [4], the returns started coming in soon after Congress passed new restrictions on compensation for top employees at the banks.

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Fire the Boss

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, Juan Gonzales, Amy Goodman - May. 15 (News Analysis) - what I’m worried about is that this is the new normal, that the banks are being saved on the backs of union workers, on the backs of what’s left of the manufacturing sector, on the backs of homeowners. And so, what becomes the new normal after the crisis is an even more deeply divided country, an even more de-industrialized country.

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Road to Ruin: Mortgage Fraud Scandal Brewing

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American News Project - By Lagan Sebert - May. 11 (Special Report) - Criminal fraud may be the most underreported aspect of our current financial crisis. In this "Road to Ruin" report, former subprime lenders from Ameriquest, once the country's largest lender, describe a system rife with fraud. They describe how a "by-any-means-necessary" policy pushed employees to cut corners and falsify documents on bad mortgages and then sell the toxic assets to Wall Street banks eager to make fast profits.

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